Stockist Spotlight: Vowed and Amazed

Could you please take a moment to introduce yourself to my readers who may not have come across your brand before....
We are Caroline & Stuart AKA Vowed & Amazed, we design and create bespoke props for weddings and events, we are most known for being the original ‘giant light up letter’ company.

When did Vowed and Amazed get started as a business and what were the main ideas behind setting the business up?
We started just after we got engaged! Basically we had some very specific décor in mind for our own wedding and it just didn’t exist anywhere! We both met at Art school and had both gone into prop and set design so we knew we could build the pieces ourselves. I always had in the back of my mind that if it went well it could be a new career avenue for us both but I never thought for one second it would take off like it has! Honestly I did think our pieces might be a bit over the top for most people’s tastes, we’ve been really pleased and excited that our customers love joining in with the theatrical-ness!

Why did you decide to concentrate your efforts on the wedding industry?
Because originally our first pieces were for our own wedding but we’ve actually been really surprised with the amount of non-wedding event work we have has as well.

Could you give us an idea of where you find the inspiration behind your work?
I think our inspiration had been with us both for a long time, even before we met each other. Stuart had a love of steam fairs and vintage stage sets and I had an obsession with funfairs and magicians and old cinemas etc.. so we’d really been collecting a lot of information up in our brains naturally through our interests all our lives. Before we started Vowed & Amazed we spent our early 20s running burlesque nights in East London with fabulous stage sets, that was an amazing grounding for going into event work.

Could you tell us a little about your sister company Thorn Industries and your interest in scenery construction?
We kind of started as his and her companies, V&A was mine and Thorn Industries was Stuarts, Stuart has done some amazing work through Thorn Industries including some of the theatrical looking buildings for Hyde Park’s Winter Wonderland, music video sets, and window pieces for Harrods, Selfridges and more. But more than that it helped us support ourselves while we got V&A going.

Which designs in your collection are your favourites and why would you choose these pieces over others?
Well our newest un-launched piece is our favorite but we can’t talk about that yet ;) We love all of our pieces, honestly you never get tired of flicking that on switch and seeing that magical glow! And the best part is seeing the clients face when you switch them on!

Please could you tell us more about your bespoke service? What is the most challenging piece that you have been asked to construct?
We don’t get to build as much bespoke work as we’d like as we are so busy with the hire work, but we have an amazing piece to build over the winter for a couple based on the logo they have had designed for their wedding stationary, I can’t say much but it is a deco dream! We also build and sell mini versions of all of our hire pieces, it so lovely when couples get to keep them as a memento of their big day! Are there any future projects that you would like to share with my readers?
We have a new website launching soon with an on-line shop for our mini ‘to buy’ signs and keep an eye out for our newest hire piece being launched!

You seem to have had some amazing press being featured on not only some fabulous wedding blogs including Love My Dress but also in popular magazines including Elle and NME. What would you say has been your career highlight so far?
Oh yes we have been so lucky with the range of work and press we have done. Honestly, as the biggest Britpop mad teenager on the planet I nearly cried the day we got our lights on the cover of NME! When Dawn Porter and Chris O’Dowd decided to only release one photograph from their wedding and it featured them with our letters we were over the moon also! We are firm believers that featuring on ‘Love my Dress’ made us! In fact we just sent a special thank you present off to Annabel today!What are you hoping to achieve in the next 12 months?
The launch of some new and exciting signs, more intricate than any that we have made before. We’d love a chance to meet some of the lovely folk we’ve meet along the way in this wedding world! Hopefully at the Perfect Wedding awards! Wink, wink, give us a vote!

Setting up any new business can be a challenging experience. What is the best business advice you have ever received? Do you have any words of wisdom yourself for fellow suppliers looking to set up their own stores?
The biggest piece of advice would be... Go your own way. Innovate! Don’t try to emulate anyone else, you need to be comfortable with who you are and work in an area that you feel genuine enthusiasm for, it’s so much work that it really needs to be a work of true love! What we do
looks glamorous on Instagram but the truth is we work extremely long hours and 7 days a week! but the hard slog is worth it to do something you love and be your own boss!